A Lifetime’s Pursuit

KENJI CHAI

The neighbourhood I grew up in had this concrete wall that remained, against all odds, untouched; an empty expanse of gray so clean that it almost seemed to taunt wayward folk in crudely lining the walls with spray paint, something you’d normally see in the city’s grimy alleyways or mischievously tagged onto the occasional pillar.

Then one day, I see it: this bright, mint-green-and-turquoise dog with its tongue lolling out in a cheeky grin. I was twelve at the time, I think, but I remembered being awestruck by just how vivid it was. That was when I was introduced to ‘Chaigo’, and by extension, the man behind the smiling canine, Kenji Chai Vui Yung.

“I was 28 when I dipped my toe into the world of street art—nothing serious as I was still working as a graphic designer at the time,” Chai recalls. “I don’t remember the exact year, it was probably somewhere